It was a nice day on Primrose Hill on Sunday 28 April, with much-needed sun warming up proceedings – and soon a large crowd gathered to dust off their gloves or put one on for the first time
The Softball Shorts Day run by the Greater London Softball Mixed League on 28 April for new and inexperienced players doubled in size this year, with over 40 people attending the coaching session.
The group was made up of around 10 players from the Publishers League and 10 from the GLSML Minors Divisions, but the rest were players new to the game.
Coaches were Phil Candice, Nick Barnett, Jacquelyn Strey, Tom Woodward, Mike Jennings and Steve Getraer, and there was help from Steve Karmeinsky. All the coaches supervised different drills covering the basics of playing better softball.
Better understanding
The idea behind Softball Shorts is to give people a better understanding of how to play the game with short 15-minute drills – not trying to change the world in 15 minutes, but giving people a demonstration and knowledge about an aspect of softball that they can go away and practice on their own.
Batting, throwing accuracy and ground ball fielding were some of the drills, but special guest Mike Jennings did an umpire drill covering the strike zone and outs at first and second base.
At the end of the day it was all put into practice with a short game and some great plays.
Feedback
Feedback was generally that it was a great day and that the coaches were very professional. The trainees especially enjoyed the umpiring session (who would have thought!).
GLSML Development Officer Phil Candice, who organised the session, said: “Thanks to all the coaches who made it run so smoothly and for giving up a day out of their weekend. And thanks also to all the players for turning up – without you we would have looked silly standing there on our own.”
The pictures in the gallery below, taken by Ross Whamond, tell the real story of the day.